The seven winners of the 2025 Rei Jaume I Prize agreed on Monday that Europe must boost its competitiveness so as not to fall behind the United States or China, but without losing its values centered on citizen-based regulation. “It’s a hard balance, but it’s necessary,” said the winners, who again called for “brave” politicians to invest so that “we don’t fall into decline.”

José Luis Mascareñas Cid, winner in the Basic Research; Jan Eeckhout, in Economics; Nuria López-Bigas, in Biomedical Research; Victoria Reyes García, in Environmental Protection; María Jesús Vicent Docón, in New Technologies; Damià Tormo Carulla, in Business Revelation; and Silvia de Sanjosé Llongueras, in Clinical Research and Public Health, gave a press conference on monday prior to the traditional awards ceremony, which will be held at the Lonja attended by the King of Spain, Felipe VI.

The laureates discussed the lack of investment in Spain, which is 40 years behind Europe, as investment as a percentage of GDP stands at 1.5%—up just one tenth of a percentage point in a year—and continues to “think about research as it did 20 or 30 years ago,” as well as how the lack of dynamism and bureaucracy are weighing down European productivity compared to other economies. In fact, this year’s marketing campaign is called “Spain: Insert Coin,” which offers constructive criticism to draw attention to this issue.

Damià Tormo warned that Europe is “losing that race” with China and the United States, pointing out that “the US regulates for its companies, China for its government, and Europe governs for its citizens,” adding that “that mentality is very difficult to change.”

He also stated that with Artificial Intelligence, “all the foundations we know will change in a very short period of time,” to which we must add the changes in the geopolitical situation. “It may be making us less competitive, but we cannot lose our values either. It will be very interesting to see how we proceed, he said.

“I feel much more confident with the model we have in Europe than with the savage free market that is the American one,” said Silvia de Sanjosé Llongueras, who nevertheless called for a “response” to the “tsunami that is coming with Artificial Intelligence”: “In Europe, we have a very privileged model, but we are falling into decline.”

Victoria Reyes García has stated that, in facing the global challenges posed by climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as the challenges of AI and new technologies, “rather than seeing it as a decline, we should see how we export and emphasize these values of science in Europe to regulate for citizens.” “Rather than competitiveness, we need to talk about cooperation. These global problems cannot be solved by thinking about who wins; they affect us all,” she said. She also warned that there are “strong economic interests” behind disinformation campaigns on social media aimed at young people.

Jan Eeckhout pointed out that the challenge is to overcome “the risk of what will happen with AI and a concentration of economic power.” “The danger is not that a robot will take your job, but the concentration of power in four large companies,” he said.

“Courageous politicians”

Furthermore, José Luis Mascareñas lamented that although politicians “talk a lot about the need to invest” in R&D, “the truth is that it is not a priority unless there is a crisis, when there is pressure, as happened with the COVID pandemic,” because “the results of research are usually seen in the mid to long term” and that timeframe “is not usually very attractive” to them.

However, he stressed that “we will never be a competitive country internationally if we do not have sustained funding over time,” and to that end, he pointed out that a National Budget is needed that “includes a very clear commitment to investment,” in order to review how talent and training programs are developed: “Spanish University needs a great revulsive”

Silvia de Sanjosé Llongueras added that another of Spanish problems is its inability to guarantee young researchers “a minimum level of stability with good incomes” in order to retain talent and prevent them from emigrating to pursue their professional careers. “We need courageous politicians who are capable of looking at the long term and not just at one legislature, Nuria López-Bigas claimed.

Furthermore, María Jesús Vicent Docón pointed out that, in addition to investment, policies are also needed to ensure that research is self-sustaining, such as establishing benefits for companies that set up in Spain or supporting the self-employed.